Showers are used in the paper making industry to condition fabrics. One such fabric conditioning application is where a flood of water or other liquid under low pressure is supplied to the felt surface to flush dirt particles from the felt and to neutralize wet streaks. A second conditioning application is where water is sprayed under pressure onto a felt in order to actually dislodge dirt particles from the fiber/yarn structure and to resist compaction. This requires intermittent use.
Shower systems are provided today which combine both purging and spraying and nozzles are available such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,803,499 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,954,170 which perform this dual function. In nozzles of this type two positions of operation are utilized. One position being a purging position and one position being a spray position. The difficulty heretofore in the use of such systems has been the inability to transform without change of spray pipe water pressure, rapidly from one position to the other and the difficulty in making such transformation.